12 Christmases
by Rakusa
Summary: The title kind of gives it away. I felt in the mood for pure, unadulterated fluff, so I give you this instead.
1. Twinkling Circus Lights

12 Christmases

11.22.2015

Summary: The title kind of gives it away. I felt in the mood for pure, unadulterated fluff, so I give you this instead.

–

AN: the summary kind of tells you what I'm going to say here, but there will be 12 chapters. If I do what I say I am, then you will get 3 chapters a week, some will be every day for 3 days, some might be 2-1 or 1-2, or every other day. That will be part of the fun too. :D

AN2: They won't be in order. Oh and did I say that they're going to be one-shots? So they might not even be in the same universe as each other? And that they won't all start out fluffy? I mean to feel goodness you need to feel darkness? It will probably be more manga based than anime now that I've actually read the entire manga start to finish (had only read stars in its entirety years ago and when I read it again it wasn't exactly how I remembered it, but it might have been the copy too). AND it won't all be Darien-Serena centric but they probably won't all get equal screen time.

AN3: I do warn you, I was in the mood for fluff but what I wrote... well... it's one of those things that you didn't realize you were thinking it/feeling it/cared about it until someone asked you or it just came out... I blame one of these on a novella I read and the feelings in the book were feelings I thought I had gotten over finally but then it stirred them up again, but, and here's the silver-lining, these might not all be fluff but they're all positive in their own ways, even if you have to look really deeply. (kind of like Just Something Stupid in reverse, that one is darker the more you think about it, this is lighter the more you think about it). And I _will_ have purely fluff pieces in here too.

–

Christmas 1: Twinkling Circus Lights

–

One by one the lights in the sky were going out, leaving in it's wake a void that stretched over them like a blanket, but cold and suffocating. It happened slowly but with the way the people in this city behaved, as if they could never stop and look up, it didn't have to bother with subtly.

It was only when there were only a handful of spots dotting the sky above did people realize, too late to even wonder what was happening. Then those lights snuffed out too as they watched. Of course panic set in and unfortunately it wasn't just the silly humans that freaked.

The people the humans turned to in times like this, the senshi, they were already worried about what the stars going out meant, and had been doing things to combat it for almost as long as it had been happening but now they had a deeper sense on what it meant.

There was going to be an awakening.

"What should we do?" Jupiter asked, things had been looking up so much, yes, nightmares had slowly been suffocating their atmosphere but they were getting so much stronger, they had all proven to the world and to themselves that they had the power within them to transform into their crystal forms.

Yet their prince and princess were both sick, black roses taking over their lungs, black blood coming up from their chests whenever they coughed. They were missing the chalice that they had once poured their power into, the chalice that was so powerful. Their remaining senshi had shown up, finally and with them they brought the destroyer of worlds, death itself. Yet the chalice wouldn't appear, mainly because, the prince and princess had disappeared at the exact moment the stars were completely shut out.

The remaining senshi stood around at the place they last saw their royals and waited and hoped. Mercury and Pluto were trying to figure something out, the two planets that were the farthest from each other at almost any given time, except Pluto crossed many of their orbits and it was a wonder that they hadn't crashed yet.

Chibi-Moon scuffed her booted toe against the ground in front of her and thought, they usually had the Earth representative here as well to help them plan, 3 heads, 3 evenly distributed planets, the power of the triangle, but he wasn't here but his 900+ year old daughter was. By now she should have had all of his knowledge and all of Serenity's heart. They glanced at her speculatively, she was the Earth and Moon representative.

She lifted her head as if she just realized something herself. "What if I tried to bring the chalice back myself?" They gave a shrug, it was worth a try.

She held her hands out in front of her like Moon had and they all lent her their energies while she poured her own in. A faint outline appeared but it was of no use, they needed 10-11 separate energy signatures. Chibi-Moon stomped a foot in frustration. "What are we supposed to do now? This can't be the end!"

"It's not." Fingers ruffled through Chibi-Moon's bangs as a soft voice spoke from behind her and she twirled around to see with her own eyes if it was true.

It was, her parents' younger versions were there in front of her and she tossed herself at her mom and nearly took her out if her father hadn't been behind Moon with hands on her shoulders. "You're back!"

"Perfect timing." Mars said in an aside to Neptune who smirked and then they realized how close they were to each other and started tiptoeing apart trying to put as much distance between them as possible. Those two elements should really still away from each other but didn't want to hurt the other's feelings. Hell Uranus and her wind powers should stay away from Mars too as it could either create a terrible fire that got out of hand or Uranus could put the fire out.

"Are you healed?" Mercury asked pulling her palm-pilot around to them.

Moon pushed the device down and shook her head. "Elysian didn't have enough energy to completely heal us, but we're better, we're stronger."

"For now." Venus understood what she was saying and Moon caught her eye and gave a small nod. "You should have stayed away from him."

"He would have died." Moon countered

"Chibi-Moon would have died." Pluto added before anyone could say anymore and Venus had to acknowledge that.

It was a long, hard battle, and the royal couple fell a few times.

In the end though, they persevered and pushed back the enemy and eventually with all of their powers and the future powers and Helios, they managed to rid themselves of their enemy. A giant wave of energy of all colors hit their enemy fully.

Not all were sure if they were completely gone but they were gone for now. The senshi scooped up Chibi-Usa. Helios was gone, back to his sanctuary where he would preside over for a long time to come and a promise to his youngest charge that he'd always be there for her. The sisters had gone back to sleep in the Amazon and the royal couple hung back as the rest went home.

Chibi-Usa would be staying at the outers' for the night so she could catch up with Hotaru. Perhaps a lot of the girls would be staying at Rei's.

Usagi breathed into her hands to try and warm them and Mamoru wrapped his arms around her and rested his chin on top of her head. They would have an argument later about what he'd done, what she'd done but for now, they were happy to just be with one another. She felt instantly warmer within his embrace. "If you had your cloak I'd be even warmer." She teased and he lifted his chin to look at her.

"Then how would you feel with the gossip rags tomorrow threw that image onto their covers and the heading 'Moon loses out to a High Schooler'?"

Usagi laughed and leaned into his chest. "Probably be pretty upset, even if said High Schooler was me."

"And all the boys who would be chasing after you thinking you were easy."

"Easy? For dating a superhero?" She pulled away so she could look at him.

"Easy for dating a superhero and an amazing upperclassman." He wiggled his eyebrows.

Usagi laughed again and leaned back into him again. "All those girls ready to chop my head off for snagging the world's two most eligible bachelors."

"Then those who are angry at you breaking up the best couple in the world."

"And all of this of course falls on the woman's shoulders." Usagi shook her head.

"All of this falls onto your shoulders because they can't find me to castrate me." He countered.

They both laughed at the possible future, it'd probably happen that way too if anyone ever caught Kamen with the Klutz. "I'd be dead." She agreed.

"I'd protect you."

"As Kamen or as Mamoru?" She angled her head but all she could see was the underside of his jaw. He titled his head to look down at her, but it wasn't any better, all she could see now was the front side of his jaw and up his nose. She decided to look away.

"As both." He vowed and hugged her to him a little tighter. "Look, the stars are coming back out."

And one by one they watched as the stars reappeared in the blank canvas. They twinkled so much brighter now as if they were trying hard to catch everyone's attention. Or they might have been mad that they were ever hidden in the first place. Either way they shone down upon them in all their glory.

"It's absolutely breathtaking." And it was, unlike all the silly humans who had panicked when they finally noticed the stars going out, all they could see was the stars illuminating the sky.

"Merry Christmas, Usako."

"Happy Christmas, Mamo-chan."

Perhaps it was two or three days early but it would be a very merry one indeed.


	2. Uber Christmas

Christmas 2: Uber Christmas

–

"Tell me again why we're going to fight _this_ youma?" Serena was the one who asked but they all kind of acknowledged that her point was valid and wondered that themselves.

It wasn't even really obvious that it was a youma. Most of the shoppers at the mall just thought it was an elf. The only reason the senshi, ie Amy, thought it was a youma to begin with was because it was because instead of the usual Santa ringing the bell at one of those charity containers, or even Mrs. Clause or one of the regular dressed folks with holiday cheer, it was... an elf, with pointy ears, a glittery face and turned up toed shoes with bells. It was wearing green and had white tights. The only thing really odd about it was the red skin and that it was female with a huge bust. Other than that... nothing... not really at least.

It was giving out candy to all of those who donated money. The candy wasn't even really doing anything to the people, they were a little more tired but that was it. That could have easily been swept under the rug as they did their Christmas shopping and waited in line to see the show and Santa at the end. Not to mention the dozens of displays set out for people to 'ahh' and 'ooh' over.

"Are we _sure_?" Mina didn't look too impressed by Amy's data. "I mean cause if we're not we're going to ruin a lot of people's days."

"Can't we just leave the little guy even if she is? I mean she's not hurting anyone." Lita piped in.

"She's feeding our enemy _energy_." Amy stared at them as if they were nuts. "If this continues then our enemy will get stronger and we'll have tougher battles ahead, maybe even the big guy."

"Yeah but she's not getting _much_ energy and in a week she'll be very out of place and people will stop believing that she's working for a charity and will then stop giving her money and stop getting candy." Serena argued a bit more.

Raye shrugged. "She's got a point. Why waste _our_ energy when it's own shtick will get it tossed out anyway?"

"But-but-" Amy looked around at the faces she was with, looking for someone to back her up. "Luna?"

"I agree with Amy?" Luna said but not very convincingly.

"Artemis?" Amy asked, looking for another voice of reason to give her side weight. If she was nearly half then they'd have to agree. She could even call Darien to lend her credence. His first priority was protecting Serena at all costs, even if she didn't think it was a danger, if Amy did, then he'd agree, better safe than sorry.

Yet Artemis betrayed her. "I'm with the other girls here, let the enemy gather peanuts of energy, while we know this youma is here, they won't send another and we don't have to go looking for it. We can keep an eye on this one and make sure it doesn't do anything upsetting. Until then, we do nothing."

Amy huffed and thought they were all nuts. Sure her first priority was to protect the princess and if she wasn't in any danger then why provoke an attack, but her second priority was to the people of Earth and they were slowly losing their energy, temporarily sure, but that energy was being _taken_.

Finding herself thwarted she decided to deal with the enemy herself. The girls all went off to shop, leaving Amy to observe the youma first, not thinking she'd do anything to it. Usually when she lost, she was a bit more gracious about it.

She couldn't outright attack it. So instead she went down there and stopped in front of it with her arms crossed. "I don't think you're really an elf. Prove it and them I might donate some money."

The elf looked at her with a calm expression on it's face. "How would you like me to do that?"

"Where are you from?" The youma had barely asked its question before Amy asked hers.

"The North Pole."

"No one lives at the North Pole." Not anymore, they killed everyone who had.

"You're thinking of the South Pole." The youma replied gently. "No one lives _there_. Santa, my elf friends and family and the reindeer live at the North Pole."

"Do you really believe what you say or are you just that good at lying?"

"I believe what I say."

"Ah so they programmed it into you. Very interesting. Very smart." Amy tapped her chin, thinking. "What is the temperature there?"

"Not entirely sure because we don't go outside much in the winter and I'm not there today but usually it's around -50 plus windchill and humidity making it feel colder."

"Very good programming." Amy sighed. "I'm not going to get anywhere with this line of questioning." She titled her head. "If you're an elf, what are you doing here collecting money?"

"Well we elves are good at making toys but the homeless and needy need food more than they need material items and so we collect money for them too so they can get food, a blanket, a roof, whatever they need."

"And if I were to stab you with an icicle?"

"Not sure why you would want to do that, but it would be very painful and I'd probably bleed and depending on where you stabbed me, I'd probably get really hurt or die. I'd also probably cry and scream." The elf shrugged. "Anything else?"

"Come on, move along, you're holding up the line." People behind Amy started jostling her though there was plenty of room to go behind her, they all wanted access to _this_ pot.

Amy pulled out some change and added it to the donation. Maybe she was wrong, maybe it wasn't a youma. The elf gave her a piece of candy and Amy tossed it into the pot as well. It started smoking. "What the?"

"Why did you go and do that?" The youma's calm demeanor was starting to slip away as the smoke got heavier and darker. "If you didn't want the candy you should have just thrown it in the trash! Do you know how much work it is to clean this out of things that don't belong?"

The youma got taller as its voice got deeper. It went from tinny and a bit high pitched to seductive and the body only got more seductive and voluptuous. "That's not Christmas at all." Amy mumbled to herself. This youma was reminiscent of that famous 'you won't like me when I'm angry' quote.

"Amy, what did you do?" Raye demanded when Amy scooted backwards and got to the safety of the second floor.

"It wasn't like I planned it!" Well- she had but not the way it had happened. "I guess it's better than it happening when we weren't here." Someone was bound to toss the candy into the donations, eventually.

"Time to transform." Raye quipped as the rest of the girls joined them. Sure there would have been logic to going in first as a duo but there was logic going in this way.

"Really?" Serena whined. "Just when I thought it was safe to let people play with a youma." She pouted but they all transformed anyway.

It didn't register for Amy at first that there was something different with her fuku, she glanced around and didn't see what was wrong for all of two seconds as everything was mostly the same. It was only when she looked at Moon and her complete step away from regularity that Amy finally noted that all of their fukus were different.

The colors were still there, she was still in blue, Raye red, Lita green and Mina gold. Well... maybe Mina's was a bit more _gold_ than before. Theirs were all the same, just perhaps a big richer in color and the material was now velvet and they had furry white trim along all of the edges.

Serena though was decked in silver, red and green rather than her traditional red, blue and white, her legs were covered in stripes of green and silver but her red boots remained, in fact what was white was now silver and what was blue was now green. The only additions were the tights and a few extra sparkles making her look like a real elf or Christmas fairy.

It took Serena less time to realize what happened. "Oh my god! This is so cool! We're Christmas Senshi!" She squealed and danced around a bit, gaining quite a few eyes, including the youma. "Do you think we have Christmas attacks as well? That's be sooo rad!"

"Uh, Moonie-" Jupiter had shrugged off the costume change, it happened often enough.

"That's Christmas Moonie!" She did another twirl. She became serious all of a sudden. "No, no, that will never do, I'd have to be called Christmas _Moon_ because that's a thing, did you know? It actually exists."

"Whatever." Mars hissed. "We've bigger issues to think about." She looked purposefully downstairs at the now _red_ youma. Perhaps green was passive and red was angry? Was it possible to return it to it's previous self?

Mercury was loathe to be rid of these costumes herself. She quite liked the extra length and material. It was so plush and if she didn't have toasty warm gloves on she'd run her hands over her skirt for hours.

"Do you think we'll have these fukus for the rest of the Christmas period?" Venus asked hugging herself, obviously thinking along the same lines as Mercury. "I mean we haven't had an enemy _yet_ this season and so we don't know if we've had them before or not. Or is it just because it's a Christmas youma?"

"That's stupid." Mars snapped. "We don't have mermaid costumes when we deal with sea creature type youma."

"That'd certainly make it harder for us." Mercury agreed with a straight face.

"Or bird fukus or wings when we deal with planes or animals of flight." Moon sadly acknowledged. "Though it _would_ be cool to be a mermaid."

Mars groaned as she realized what she'd started. "Enough!" Her yell caught even more attention and she winced. "Youma?" She waved towards the creature that still wasn't _doing_ anything, just fuming and no longer in disguise.

"Fine." Moon took off her tiara and tried to send it at the youma. It ended up falling at her feet. "Huh, weird." She picked it up and looked at it. It was no longer gold but silver and red striped. She turned it and turned it again. "Candy Cane Toss?" She asked it and it jumped out of her hand and landed with an echo down below, just short of their youma. "Woah, totally cool." A beat of silence and then Moon was jumping and screaming in happiness. "Christmas attacks!" She caught herself. "That sounds so bad..."

"Whatever." Mars pushed the dumb blond aside and held out her hand. "Yule Time Fire!" A ring of fire surrounded the youma and she held out her hands in order to warm herself up with Mars' attack.

"Chestnuts Roasting?" Jupiter rained chestnuts down but all they did was land in the flames created by Mars. "Yuletide Logs?" Logs joined the mess below and caused the fire to grow.

"Christmas Crackers!" Venus crowed with delight and started pulling them apart, firecrackers started appearing out of them and only lit up the stage.

Mercury couldn't help her laughing and waved her arms at the production they were putting on. "Christmas Snow Flurries!" Snowflakes and puffs of snow fell around the rest of the scene and fizzled out when it touched the fire but landed within and further out from the circle.

"That's such a mess they're going to have to clean up." Moon bemoaned her Christmas Wonderland.

"Ooh, maybe this will be another one of my attacks!" Venus held out her own hand and sent it towards the youma. "Garland Wrap!" Yards upon yards of decoration shot out and wrapped around the youma who had only looked on in wonder. Now she was angry and ripped the garland from around her and what once was candy that only took a bit of the people's energy, now shot out from her and pelted people, like hail, causing bruising and if it stuck, and they were sticky, then it eroded whatever it touched. In fact a good portion of the floor they were standing on was just covered in the candy and some of the support beams.

"Ah crap." Mercury grabbed Moon and jumped away from the balcony, the other senshi followed quickly behind and where they had been standing crashed to the floor below, thankfully not on anyone. "Icicle Freeze Spray!" Shards of ice flew at the youma as if riding a wave and pinned it to the wall temporarily, injuring it in the process as well.

It busted through the icicles and sent a wave of hot soup at them, they could see it smoking as soon as it left her.

"Oh crap." They weren't fast enough to get to Moon and save themselves, sometimes being in the center had its drawbacks. They would have flung her out of the way if they could have reached her. Moon shrieked and tried to fall backwards so she could go under the wave of steaming hot soup but hands caught her under her armpits and they went up rather than down or sideways. He had the speed and adrenaline going for him.

He would have words with the senshi later about what they did here, but for now, he held her close and wrapped his cloak around them. Moon didn't stay in his arms long, he was panting in fear and effort but she was too curious to soak up what she usually wanted most of all and this was the time he'd give it.

"Ha! I knew it!" Moon jumped around yet again with happiness. He was in a dark green tuxedo with a badass red and silver cape. It was huge and almost overpowering and _sweet_. "It looks like a Christmas version of John Snow's cape!"

He groaned and shook his head. "Youma."

"I think you should keep the look and style of this cape." She picked it up, it was a little heavy and hid his fabulous bod but it was so... dark warrior/vampire/bat but red and silver. A very, very light silver that looked almost white, but had a shinier quality to it than the girls' fukus' trim. "Even if you go back to the black and red one." She tilted her head. "I'm kind of surprised you didn't keep the black tuxedo and cape and have red trim or a red cape with black trim."

"It's not like I chose this costume anymore than any of you." He responded dryly.

Moon shrugged. "The girls kept their colors. I suppose you'd be different because I'm different."

"Speaking of being different, did you know you're the only one not fighting the angry youma?"

"Oops?" Moon turned and vaulted over the side and he had to rest assured that she was fine if she didn't cling to him and was only interested in his new outfit. Obviously she hadn't gotten scalded at all.

"Hot Choco Blast!" The youma started sending cups of the hot liquid at them, this they could easily avoid. Or at least better at doing so.

There was one cup that almost hit Moon square in the forehead but Kamen shot a red flower down at it. Except it wasn't his usual rose, it was a poinsettia instead. Didn't have quite the same impact or slice to it but Moon was saved and she looked up at him with hearts in her eyes over the seasonal flower. He shooed her on to deal with the youma finally, sort of embarrassed by the flower change to scold her verbally.

She nodded and gave him a cheeky salute and turned her attention and her candy cane staff towards the youma. Kamen dropped down next to Mercury. "I thought her tiara turned into a candy cane?"

"It did but if you notice this one is pink and red rather than silver and red." Mercury shrugged not knowing for sure what would happen.

"Cranberry Wreath"

"And Decorative Bow!"

"Tree Lights!"

Moon, Venus and Jupiter all attacked the youma at once and it cried, literally _cried_ when it was being dusted, but the weird thing was that they were tears of joy.

"This is just... weird." Kamen shook his head. "Moon, when you finish, come find me!" Then he disappeared, anything to get away from what he'd just witnessed and unfortunately had been a part of.

Later that night, Serena was asking to try on his cape, which was ridiculous because he was a good foot taller than her and it would only pile up around her feet. He told her no because it was gone, it was just for that one youma.

He never told her that he hung it up in his closet and pulled it out on nights he felt emasculated, just so he could throw it on and look in the mirror and remind himself about how badass he looked in it, even if the rest... well wasn't quite so stellar. He couldn't have everything all the time.

–

EAN: Yeah I know I use American English language and names but fuku, senshi, Kamen and youma but I can't help it, I hate using the English version of those words. Also because they're 'dub' versions of themselves they're supposed to be acting like that, which is totally different than many other ones you'll see here.


	3. Postcards

Christmas 3: Postcards

–

Amy pinned the latest postcard from her dad up in her closet. Her mom always hated seeing them, she got teary-eyed and would walk out of the room. So Amy had taken to getting to the post first and taking it out of the mail and putting the rest of it on the counter for her mom and hiding these in here, so she could see them as she got dressed but her mom didn't have to. She did it every day, not just near Christmas and her birthday, which were very close together. Just so her mom wouldn't realize what she was doing on just those days. It would still have been a reminder otherwise.

She didn't know why she was so sentimental, she barely knew her dad and he holed himself away in the woods to paint and she hadn't seen him since. Though her mother got sentimental about it too, though in a very different way. She kind of laughed at herself and her mother then, her father had left because he had said they were _both_ too serious, especially her at 4 years old, she was more mature than most of the grown-ups he knew.

Amy's bottom lip quivered and she shut the door on her birthday cards. If she let herself think too hard, she got sad over it too. He had been _wrong_. Maybe that was part of the problem, with them he was usually wrong and that was before he left. He would never be right again. So in that he _was_ probably right.

Amy figured it was probably because he was her dad, she would _never_ have another father, at least not a biological one. A parent could always have more kids but the kids were stuck with their parents and the loss of one was an eternal loss and couldn't be replaced.

Her mother said that her father was the flakiest, most immature person she had ever laid eyes on and had somehow charmed his way in to her life, and then left in a typical flaky manner. She was only surprised he had stuck around for nearly 5 years. Perhaps he had been playing at being a parent and when the newness of it finally wore off he left, bored.

Amy knew it was probably because he was bored with his studious, adult child. He probably wanted a little girl more like Serena, playful, inquisitive, super-sweet. One that would entertain him with her child-like antics, one that was similar to him.

Her mother probably secretly agreed. Her mom had closed the door one time when Serena was just leaving, had met the girl for two seconds for the first time in years, waited until the blond was gone and then laid in on Amy the importance of her studies if she wanted to be a doctor and a good doctor. Serena would only distract her and derail all of her plans.

Amy had stared at her mother and then walked out of the room, that was one person she would never part ways with. Her mother learned not to breech that subject again, even after she met Mina who on appearances seemed even more of an airhead than Serena.

Amy didn't cling to her blond friends with a white finger grasp, in fact she usually seemed the most chill, like her powers, relaxing into a seat and reading, just happy to be near all of them and talking only when they talked directly to her or she needed to share her opinion or plan. In fact though, she was the most fierce one in the group and the most protective.

She had a freezing anger, again potentially quite literally, and if she didn't destroy you then and there from the cold frostiness in her countenance, the gravity she carried with her lent itself to people knowing they did wrong with just one look, then her revenge would be like the motto, best served cold.

None of her friends knew about the postcards either, she hadn't told them, not thinking it was important, it was only twice a year and always so close together, just a month apart. But she still thought about them for the following week.

It was always a postcard with his artwork on it, a print, never one made by him just for her. He was an artist and capable of such things, yet from his surprisingly hermit lifestyle, he seemed to emerge from the woods only for paint supplies and food. No one had been to his home, he usually mailed off his latest creations to his contacts and they did with it as they saw fit. He didn't care. He paid himself in some ways by buying his own postcards and mailing them to his daughter.

She would have been more impressed if he'd made the actual picture on the card rather than send off a reproduction. They were all different at least, he had yet to double up on them. She couldn't understand it though, wasn't he _bored_ living like a hermit in the woods? What inspiration could he possibly get after 12 years living in the same house, in the same woods, it didn't change that much.

It would have been one thing if he was an avid reader. He could allow his mind to soar to vast and different places and then interpreted them on his canvas. Instead he stared at the same walls, the same trees with only slight variations.

It was cold now too, and while some might admire his dedication to his craft, she was starting to get sick of it. She and her mother still had her father's last name and her mother was well-known in many circles but every once in awhile someone would link Amy to her famous father. He was an absentee father who lived an hour away and never visited, never saw what happened to the person who shared his genes.

–

Still, looking in her closet again two weeks later when she got home from class... she couldn't throw him out and she didn't know why. She always questioned how he could know so much about her. She took them down and looked at the words rather than the picture, this one he wrote how he could imagine her with a missing tooth shortly after she lost one of her front teeth and had sounded like she was whistling when she spoke.

She'd gotten shy and spoke less but now she missed that sound, she couldn't whistle for the life of her after her adult teeth came in.

Then there was this one, telling her how proud he was of her for winning first place at the science fair.

How proud he was for her winning first place in the math-olympics.

First place in the spelling bee.

For getting the highest rank in her entire freshman year.

For getting straight As every year.

For so many accomplishments, even being published in both a non-fiction literary competition and an economic journal for her essay about the changes in economy and how you could potentially predict it but once you predict something and the world knows about it, it instantly changes until the prediction is forgotten about and then it becomes true again.

Not all of them were in the newspaper.

She gathered them together into a pile and decided it was time to get a box for them instead. They no longer belonged on her walls, even if they were hidden in a much bigger box most of the time. It was time to put aside her childish things. Someone out there would laugh at him because he was the one that had spurred her to be less like a child.

They would then laugh at her for reacting in that way, not getting the message that she needed to lighten up and be more child-like at times.

–

Amy dragged Lita through one more craft store. The tall brunette liked this kind of thing and was looking for something herself and had found it two stores ago. Yet she didn't say anything as she went with Amy who was getting almost feverish about finding the _right_ box.

It was beginning to snow outside and carols pumped in nauseating repeat of the same 3 songs everywhere they went, only the singer seemed to change. Someone obviously thought people would be either too stupid to realize it or too unconcerned to bother with complaining and so the companies got away with it every year. Starting it earlier and earlier each year.

Lita who loved the season wouldn't start listening to them on her own until after Thanksgiving. Amy would rather do away with the whole holiday altogether, or at least that's how she felt until she met these girls and then she started warming towards the holiday again, even the sickening music.

They all loved Christmas songs, it was just the length and lack of variety that sometimes got to them. Got to the whole planet probably.

Amy sighed as they finished looking through the boxes here as well, she couldn't find the right one. Lita put a hand on her shoulder and suggested just going home and trying again tomorrow. They might have been out of craft stores but that didn't mean that they weren't able to find somewhere else that had what she wanted, it might just have to appear to her and it would be different than what she'd expected or thought right.

Amy sighed and agreed that Lita was probably right. Amy invited Lita over for dinner, it was the least she could do to wait so patiently while she went on her fools' mission.

However once they got back to Amy's Lita realized that Amy was just going to order in food because no one cooked there. After a thorough check of the kitchen, Lita surmised it would be fine. Amy went to go deal with another matter while Lita cooked. Amy probably cooked less often than the blonds.

Lita opened a drawer in the kitchen that probably wasn't used much and instead of seeing kitchen things in there, she found a stack of postcards. Lita frowned and took them out, they were beautiful images and she flipped them around, they were all blank, except the top one. It was written in a man's handwriting but it wasn't finished or posted.

It read: My darling girl, I know it has been too long since we've last seen each other, but I just wanted to let you know that I've been thinking of you this holiday season and wish you well. I'm so proud of you for-

It ended there. It looked like it had been hastily tossed into the drawer as if interrupted.

Amy meanwhile looked at her postcards and sighed at the holes in the walls and the pins that she had put into a jar. She began the task of replacing them. Until she found the right box, they'd stay on her walls as a reminder. Part of her, a very small part, wanted to write him back and tell him to stop. He wasn't really part of her life and he shouldn't pretend to be anymore. It seemed like such a chore to put her postcards back up but she finished in ten minutes and came back out to the kitchen to see how Lita was getting on.

She was staring at a pile of postcards. "What do you have there?" Amy took them from Lita and she reread the words Lita had but frowned as she knew how it should have been completed. "Oh." She reread it again and then stuffed them back in the drawer and closed it. Lita smartly had let her do that and had worked on dinner while she got it under control.

"Who's writing you?" She asked when Amy closed the drawer.

"My dad." Amy shook her head. "I mean, my mom is writing me pretending to be my dad." She felt like the floor had opened up underneath her. There had been no one in here except her mom and herself and the rare times she had friends over. Her mom never invited anyone over. "I mean, why would she do that?"

Amy's whole life had been a lie, she thought her father cared enough about her to write her two letters within as many months but that was a joke, of course he didn't. It was cruel of her mother to let her think so. What if she reverse tracked her father through those postcards when she eventually got to the point where she wanted to talk to him, call him out on his leaving? She would have reverse tracked her father here or to her mom's office or something.

"It's been a lie, this entire time." Amy sank onto one of the stools, all mostly for show, though they never showed anyone, it was just something they were supposed to have. "He never cared. He never wrote. How could she do that to me? How could she be so cruel as to give me that hope? It would have been better to have a clean cut."

"No." Lita banged her spatula onto the counter and spun around to face Amy. "It's never easier to lose a parent cleanly." She stalked over to Amy. "It's always better to have the hope that they're out there somewhere thinking about you, caring about you. When you lose them cleanly you completely lose them, lose part of yourself." Lita covered Amy's hand. "Your mother did this to be kind to you. She did this so you'll always have a piece of your father, so you know how much you're loved, because you are very special."

Amy squeezed Lita's hand. "Maybe." She agreed, she would have to think about it, see all the angles but already she knew Lita was right. She stretched and looked over Lita's shoulder. "What's bubbling?"

Lita squeaked and ran back to her dish. Lita was extra charming and funny that night and Amy laughed and told her own jokes, almost able to forget the mammoth secret she learned.

Lita never once mentioned the postcards again to her or anyone, knowing that secret and tradition was entirely Amy's.

As for Amy, well she got another postcard in the mail on the 24th of December and brought the mail in, set the rest down next to her mother, kissed her cheek and wandered into her bedroom and pinned up the latest post card. It would be a shame to hide so much love in a box, so she moved them out of her closet and pinned them to her empty wall. It created a beautiful scene.

Lita was right, it was good to know she was loved by her parents, but beyond that, she knew now how much her _mom_ loved her.

–

EAN: English names again, I know, but they fit better for this update too... Not all of them will be. Mostly because Amy calls her 'mom' and that's not something a lot of non-Americans/regular English speaking people say in whatever English speaking country. I don't mean upper class, I mean someone who is huffy and uppity might insist that it's "mother" no matter what their class is. Not that everyone can't use mother, or switch it up. I, in fact, call my mother so many different versions of the word, it depends on the sentence and the situation.


	4. While They're Still Velvet

Christmas 4: While They're Still Velvet

–

Innocence would not be the first thought someone had when it came to royalty. Although they were highly protected physically, most royalty were well aware of the dangerous out there and the risk they were taking any time they went somewhere or stayed too long in one spot. More than that, royalty was privy to all the games people played and all the harsh comments wrapped up prettily.

Yet innocence would be exactly the word used to describe this royal couple as they wandered the grounds of the North Pole. "So your throne is quite literately on the top of the world?"

He sent her a boyishly charming smile. "Why wouldn't it be?" They were a new couple, they'd met a month ago and in the time between they'd held hands, hugged and shared three kisses. Two of which were done in the space of so many minutes and kissing had just entered their relationship in the last two days. They were still slightly awkward about it.

Serenity shook her head, a smile coming to her own lips. "Ours isn't."

"But yours is in the center of the only city." He reminded her and it was done for good reason too whereas only staff and royalty lived in the entire region he lived in. The rest of the beings that lived here were developed to do so and were a vast array of animals. The rest of his people were spread out far and wide around his planet with no one really finding the North Pole to their liking.

He snagged her hand shortly before they rounded one of the castle walls and she spotted their hutches and beyond that were stables. "Oh." She paused taking it all in. "Animals?" She glanced at him, the only animals on the moon were the two cats. They got all their meat from Earth but she wasn't exactly aware of the process or the origin of that meat and he never thought to tell her, even though _he_ on occasion had a hand in it though he probably shouldn't have.

"Yeah." They were mostly work animals here but some were pets and some were destined to become a meal.

"Let's go see them!" She pulled him along in her excitement and stopped at the first cage she found. There were some rabbits inside and he reached in and handed her one, helping her to support its weight in the proper way so she wouldn't drop it.

She held it close and smelled it and grinned at him. "They smell nasty."

"Really?" He leaned in close and took a sniff himself but he was used to animal stench and they smelled so much better than some animals. "I don't-" He was cut off as she quickly pressed her lips to his and then pulled away shyly but still giving him a come-hither look.

He didn't take her up on it, she wasn't aware of the magnitude she was putting out with that look. She was just trying to flirt but she was sending him a bit stronger of a signal. Besides, he wanted to surprise _her_ with their next kiss. He rubbed a hand against the rabbit's head. "You two look cute together."

She pouted slightly but shifted the weight, careful to support most of it's body without giving it purchase to jump off from and ran her own hand down its back. "It's so soft."

He rubbed a hand against her hair. "Not as soft as you."

She gave him a coy look through her lashes but returned her attention to the animal. It was warm against her and she was loathe to put it down again but she did so she could pet a lot of the other rabbits. Next they found the chicken coop and she spent time with them too but when one tried to peck her, Endymion pulled them out and shut the door.

"They get a little feisty when they're about to drop an egg." He told her and she tilted her head. "We can't watch." He shook his head and then sighed when she kept looking at him and he opened the door again. "Just no touching."

So they stayed and it wasn't impressive, it wasn't like they dropped the egg and walked away or even did it in a way you _knew_ they had laid an egg until they walked away or you picked the bird up. Which of course wasn't advisable.

Serenity though didn't care if it was exciting or people were involved in the process or not. She was just very curious and enthusiastic about it. He had to remind himself that she wasn't privy to this kind of thing on the Moon. His heart warmed while watching her. She's what made it fun for him, everything was so new for her and she showed all her feelings on her face.

He wondered if he would ever find it boring to watch her get excited over things, he'd gotten a little apathetic about the wonders of nature but decided against it. Some people never grew tired of what animals did or how they did it or the small differences. The groundskeepers loved planting flowers and while it had a curious note to it about _how_ the flowers would grow that year, where the colors would be placed exactly, it wasn't enough to hold _his_ attention for long but they kept at it, were passionate about it and the results showed that passion.

Even if he knew her, knew everything she was going to say, what she was thinking, which he doubted he would, she was always changing on him, not large swooping changes, but subtly, and he found it fascinating, all of her little quirks and ticks.

He practically dragged her away, if she had her way, she'd probably stay and watch until the egg hatched and they didn't have that long together. He entwined their fingers one he found her hand again, and they shared a smile.

Next it was the puppy pen and near them were the dogs who were undergoing training and exercise routines. Following that they watched the horses being put through their paces.

Yet it was the next set of stables that completely melted Serenity and truthfully it was one of Endymion's favorite animals too. "Here there might be a more exciting birth than the chickens." She nudged him in the ribs for that comment but found what he meant very shortly.

One of the reindeer was in labor. Most of the reindeer or caribou were female as they were the only adult reindeer to keep their antlers throughout the winter and were used to haul many packages to many places in the world.

"How long has she been in labor?" Serenity asked but was a little afraid to look, what she'd heard about labor was that it was messy and a bit gross if you weren't used to it.

"The better part of an hour." The woman who was part of the two person team for the labor explained. Serenity wasn't sure if she was a vet or a groom or something else.

"She's why I was hurrying you along." Endymion explained with a hand on the gate on the far side of her body, he wasn't exactly touching her but he effectively had his arm around her waist. He was a little scared of scaring her off and he was a little unsure of himself too. She was the first girl he was serious about and he wasn't sure what to do with her.

The stuff he'd seen adults do in public just seemed too... adult. They were only 15 and 17 respectively. "That's such a nice surprise, Endymion, thank you." She looked up at him and her appreciation and much more was there in her blue eyes.

He nodded and lowered his forehead to hers. "I knew it would interest you." His own eyes reflecting back his own feelings and it dawned on him quite suddenly. As soon as she turned 18 he would marry her, 3 years was plenty of time to allow people to get used to the idea that these two would be together forever. Not that there was much protest at the moment, only a handful of people hadn't liked the idea of them seeing one another and that was from a fraction that didn't like anything new.

The offspring was a boy and he was delivered within the next ten minutes. They weren't allowed to really touch it as it got cleaned up by the two in the stall with it and his mother but they were allowed closer and Endymion who had never been hard or overly serious in Serenity's presence almost melted completely at the newborn reindeer. He held Serenity's hand the whole time.

"There's some older ones in the next stall. They're still pretty young but able able to do more." The man said as they carefully arranged the newborn and it's mother.

Serenity nodded and Endymion followed her in. He instantly stroked one of their snouts while Serenity hesitantly pet them and touched their antlers. "They're rubbery." She commented with surprise. "I thought they'd be hard."

"Like many birds and even humans they're born with one set and slowly they shed their feathers, lose their teeth, lose the fur or things firm and become harder. In time they will be hard like the ones you've seen before or rather imagined." He tapped her on the nose. "Since you've never seen them in person before."

Serenity nodded and continued to stroke the antler. "It feels like..." She frowned, not able to place the material.

"Velvet?" Endymion stroked an antler for himself and she nodded. "That too will change but it's a pleasure while they're young. They don't really need them yet but part of the loss will come from them playing with each other and the slide of one antler against another."

"If only they _could_ keep the feel." She was stroking the soft fur of its neck now. It's eyes were getting heavy.

"Everything changes." He leaned over the back of the reindeer and gave her a slight peck on the lips. "Sometimes it's for the better. You just have to appreciate what it is while it lasts and accept the change gracefully."

"I hope _we_ don't change." She hesitated and then covered the hand petting her reindeer with her own. "Except for the better." She relented and he came around and gathered her into a hug which she returned.

"Of that we can be sure."

A knock interrupted their conversation and both turned to look at the man in red white and black. "Ho-" He paused as he looked at both of them and then laughed. "Ho. It's nice to see you in here Prince, Princess, it just wasn't expected. I heard voices and was going to shoo off any intruders. I was just checking on the adults one more time before we attached them to the sleds. We'll be very busy tonight."

"Chris." Endymion beamed, and pulled Serenity over to meet him. "It's nice to see you before you head out. Is Nicholas here with you?"

"He said he'll be down in a bit."

"Oh." Endymion turned to Serenity to explain. "Every year at this time we send out packages to help the less fortunate, especially in areas that are having trouble with this change in weather, even the hot ones because now it's gotten so much drier for longer periods of time. Chris is one of our delivery specialists."

"Nick's really the one to praise, he came up with the idea." Chris blushed so his chubby cheeks were red and it had been praise, just not overtly, the fact that Endymion brought it up at all meant he had a special interest in it and was proud of it.

"Nick and you both. Along with all the other men and women who deliver the packages." Endymion argued.

"Why red and white and black?" Serenity asked looking over the fur, that part was obviously to keep them warm.

"I always think it's best to have light and dark and bright, that way people can see them, especially at night."

She nodded. "That makes perfect sense." She held Chris's hand. "It's very good what you're doing for everyone."

Another laugh, slightly uncomfortable with the praise, he just did what he did for the sake of doing it for the right reasons, he never really expected praise from anyone, much less royalty. "Endymion's family magic helps a ton, they give us a bit of a power boost, we'd never get it all finished in one night otherwise, no matter how many people we had helping out."

Serenity turned to Endymion with hearts in her eyes. "You personally help out? That's very noble."

"I just give him a bit of my magic." It was his turn to feel uncomfortable with praise.

"But you're helping out so many unfortunate people." Serenity took his hands in hers. "That's very sweet and wonderful."

"It'd be better if we could help them be less unfortunate but the Earth is a tempest and we can only do what we can."

"For now." Serenity agreed."I imagine that it'll be much better in the future."

Endymion shrugged. "Maybe."

"I think the princess is right." Chris offered up and shook Endymion's hand. "I best be going."

"Yeah." Endymion felt the small package pressed against his hand. "Thank you Chris and continue on my sentiments to Nick and the others."

"Will do." He nodded his red and white hat covered head at them, it wasn't a sleeping cap shape, more of a coonskin cap. "Merry Christmas!"

"Merry Christmas!" Serenity and Endymion echoed back and then when the observer was gone, Endymion turned to Serenity and pulled her close, no awkwardness in his movements and kissed her. They were both a bit breathless when he pulled back. "I have a gift for you." She opened the proffered gift and gasped at the beautiful necklace inside.

It wasn't that it was expensive, it was that it was a gorgeous gift from the heart. It was a rose wrapped once around a crescent moon. "Roses are well-known and represent the Earth." Endymion explained but she hadn't needed it.

"I know." She read the emotions underlying the gift but she didn't have to say the words either, she just threw her arms around Endymion in a grateful hug and then pulled back, pulling a small box out of a pocket he didn't know existed, and truthfully didn't, not on her dress at least.

He opened it and realized they were thinking along the same lines. She'd given him cuff links, both silver with a rim of color for the crescent moon cradling a rose with a hint of red in the petals and a subtle silver green in the stem.

Later, at the Christmas Eve Ball, he was wearing his new cuff links and she was wearing her new necklace. No one noticed but they knew and shared secret smiles any time one of them made a flicker of a motion towards their gifts.

Their relationship was too new and they were too young to be taken seriously, so they didn't say the words, but they felt in their hearts and this was their way to express those three little words with so much more power and meaning than the size alone could begin to depict.


	5. Purple Snowflakes

Christmas 5: Purple Snowflakes

–

It was Christmas time again and there was a huge gala held on the Moon. Those invited either had to wear something in-line with Christmas, mostly one of the three famous colors, red, white or green. Silver and gold were also correct choices. Though one could get away with blue or purple if it was glitzy enough.

Endymion found himself in a tuxedo but to save himself the harassment of color choices, he was wearing a cape with red lining and his mask was white to match Serenity's dress. In the future he might wish he'd chosen green lining instead as there was far too much red that night and not just from the merrymakers and decorations filling the halls.

That was later, in the meantime he was spinning the love of his life around the ballroom and attracting curious eyes as to his identity. They were all wearing masks but anyone would know the princess even without the help of her signature hairstyle. She'd hardly danced with any of the men, but he hadn't asked, he just whisked her onto the floor and when it looked like she might leave, he'd spoken in her ear and then she had no desire to be anywhere else.

She would have come to that conclusion on her own but she wasn't expecting him and he was late and she was upset and startled all at once. He didn't hold her delayed understanding against her.

There was a bit of a hubbub from security when he kissed her but it was droned out by the explosion outside the castle walls. People rushed to the side of the building it had come from and the wall was obliterated where it had been hit and an army was advancing. Soldiers rushed out to face them, clearly outmatched because the Moon's population was quite small, usually other planets came in to help defend the capital on the rare occasions when they were the target, which had been increasing in frequency over the last 2 years from one or two a decade to one or two a month.

He knew the cause and he'd come here to warn them that it was going to happen again but he had thought there would be time for just one last dance before he went back to fight them on his own soil with his much larger population. He hadn't been expecting the sheer size and numbers of this attack. It had to be their whole force.

He drew Serenity back from the balcony, this was not a safe place for her and he had just gotten her to the safety of the center of the room when there was an explosion on the other side of the palace. He left her there while he sprinted to that balcony and saw a force just as large attacking from there. He swallowed back the fear clogged in his throat. It was a much larger attack than anyone had anticipated and they'd never gotten through the outer walls before.

He sprinted back to Serenity and by the time he reached her, her senshi were already flanking her and ready to fight in their uniforms. For a brief moment they had been wearing holiday colors too. They knew who he was without taking off the mask or saying anything, the kiss had told them everything and they opened up to let him in to their most precious charge.

They may not like him or think their relationship was appropriate, especially considering where the attacking force had come from, but they knew he would never hurt her. He gathered her to his side and turned to the head guard, Venus. "Where can I take her that's safe?"

"Another planet?" Mars quipped, lowering her stance, no one was on them yet.

"There's a special place for us." The Queen appeared on the back of that comment. "We're the only ones allowed in. You'll have to let her go once you get there. Beryl doesn't seem to want to hurt you so you'll both be fine."

"Mother!" Serenity objected. "She means to brainwash him."

"Then we better hope his mind is as strong as he says it is."

"My mind is fine." Endymion bit out tersely. "We're wasting time with this though, Beryl does mean to kill _her_... and you." He added as an after thought.

"You'll have to get through that mess." The queen pointed in the direction the second attack had come from. "It's close but beyond the soldiers and because of them it will seem like an eternity away."

"How do you suppose we get to it?" Endymion wouldn't drag Serenity through them. He just wouldn't. There were too many variables.

"Go through the north gates and then swing around to get there." The queen gave him further instructions and the senshi would let them go alone while they provided a distraction while pretending to usher her out of the southern gates and then swinging the other way, to the east.

It would put them too far away to help if Serenity and Endymion were caught but hopefully two people sneaking out the way he snuck in wouldn't be as noticeable as a horde and they wouldn't be _quite_ as sneaky sneaking out the southern gate.

Endymion wrapped his cape around Serenity's shoulders, it was easier to blend into shadows that way and he pulled the hood up over her head to hide her blond tresses. Though the white would blend into the streets and buildings better in daytime hours. He stuffed his mask into his inside breast pocket, it was white and too noticeable, he hoped people wouldn't recognize him though, he had very distinct looks. She was wearing a red one and he left it in place. She would definitely be recognized without it, even with the hood. He could do nothing about the white shirt he was wearing. "Ok, ready?" He asked because they would have to run, and run fast.

"Hold on." She bent down and took off her heels, losing height and protection for the bottom of her feet but also losing potential injuries if she were to trip, she could sprain an ankle easier this way or hurt herself with a longer fall. She handed them to Venus. "Ok, ready."

He nodded and laced their fingers, it had felt like so long ago when this action was new and exciting, it had shifted feelings from that to sweet or sexy depending on how it was done but now it was crucial to help them from losing each other in the run.

They ran fast and avoided all the people seething at the doors, trying to get to safety themselves. He allowed Serenity to guide him through the palace, she was faster than he had ever imagined and he was the one who had trouble at first keeping up with her. They'd never needed to run this fast together before.

She knew all the secrets of this place. She knew things no one else could possibly know save for perhaps her mother. She pulled him into a study that no one used and pressed her hand against a wall and the wall opened up for her. "Genetic imprint. Part of what makes the place mother mentioned so secure but even that can be duplicated or tricked." She explained as she took him down a long steep set of stairs that if either of them fell, there would be serious injuries by the time they reached the bottom. Thankfully they were also narrow and so he could potential stop the decent by using the walls to stop or slow them. They were unfortunately also slick, both the steps and the walls.

The light disappeared when they were only a forth of the way down them and they didn't pause in their momentum, thankfully whoever built them knew they would have to be perfectly even in distance, otherwise the user _would_ fall, no matter who they were.

Serenity wasted precious energy by creating a floating globe of light which was purposefully only bright enough to allow them to see the next step so they didn't run into a wall or onto a broken step but it made them look down rather than out.

Yet it was a good thing too because the next step several flights down was definitely unstable and he drew her back against him when she tried to stop but her momentum was too great and lifted her off her feet. Once their heart rates began to settle to a healthy pace he lowered her to the following one and skipped that hazardous step and was right behind her again as they continued their downward path.

The stones were turning from natural sleekness to a slippery wet the further down they went and he could now smell fresh water. "No one knows about this exit and mother either forgot or never knew about it. But the nice thing is that it's closer to our destination."

" _You_ shouldn't know about it, it's a long way down and you could have killed yourself and no one would have ever found you." Endymion chided though he was glad for her knowledge now even if her shrug irritated him. "And I didn't ask."

"You didn't have to." She paused at the very bottom step and got rid of the light and she peaked around the corner, nodding to herself and stepped down onto the platform, they weren't on the river but they weren't _not_ on it too. As he followed her in one direction he discovered what it was that was alluding him. It was too shallow to use and at one point it actually dried up completely. So no one was likely to stumble across the disused part of the river and part of a walkway. Even that broke up and he looked both ways trying to figure it out but Serenity pressed her hand against another wall and he followed her up a short set of stairs now.

They exited almost abruptly onto the street. He understood it now, that part of the river was under the city, he was trying to figure out why the tunnel had been build and why more people weren't walking it despite the broken path and now he understood that it wasn't even close to the outdoor recreation area that people liked to walk. It had just been too dark for him to see clearly.

The door closed quickly once they exited it and he tried to note the spot but it was just a part of a wall in a nondescript alleyway that entered into a nondescript street that looked like a hundred other streets in this area.

"Come on." Serenity placed her hand on the inside of his elbow and led him away in a direction that seemed like they were back tracking.

"Isn't it-" He began to hook his finger over his shoulder but she shook her head and he let her lead, this was her city, he was just here to protect her.

The streets were too quiet and no one was out there, no one was dumb enough; though curled up under the tables in their homes wasn't exactly the best idea either. They'd still be hit with the cross-fire if the fight rolled through this area.

They stuck to the shadows and Endymion pulled her back a few times, deeper into the darkness with him when he suspected someone was near or he heard a sound.

A few streets further and they could faintly hear the sound of a battle taking place. Red and green attacks lit up the sky. Green from their side, red from their enemy. No silver, which was a good thing, it meant that Serenity's mother hadn't joined in yet and that would relieve Serenity greatly and keep her focused on her own task, getting to safety.

The further in to this area of town the more the sounds of the battle permeated the air and the more stray sounds Endymion heard. It slowed their progress as they ducked into darkened areas more often, waited out the sound more often and for longer.

Yet Serenity knew it was all with one goal in mind, getting her to their destination, alive. She couldn't tell him what it really entailed and she wasn't in a hurry to get there herself. Sure in the end he'd know it was the best bet for her safety but he wouldn't like it. So many things could go wrong once she entered those doors.

And apparently the enemy knew it was a safe haven for those of her bloodline because there were three guards on the front door. "Tell me there's a back way in?" Endymion breathed his words so they wouldn't carry.

She shook her head not sure she could do the same thing. He nodded and took her hand and pulled her deep into the shadows and pressed her against a wall. He swooped down to kiss her and it was a kiss she refused to be their last before they did this. It was too much of a goodbye and there was too much regret in it. She pulled him back and gave him a ' _hello_ ' kiss. He kissed the tip of her nose in amusement.

"Stay here and when I whistle, I want you to run as fast as you can towards those doors, understand me?"

She nodded and he trailed his hand against her cheek before he left. She peaked around the corner to watch him, not staying exactly where he told her to but she couldn't help it, he was something to watch in action. He took out one with a swing of his sword through it's neck, decapitating it instantly and it turned to dusty, another he stabbed in the eye with his knife and the third was too much to end quickly so he ran and the youma followed. He sent out a brief, short, sharp whistle as the youma followed him. It was almost hidden by the sound of the battle still raging on so close to them and she ran at full speed towards the entrance of the gateway.

They hadn't accounted for two youma, a general and Beryl lying in wait, the youma were behind it and the general and Beryl came out from different alleyways from opposite sides and she was instantly surrounded, even her speedy wouldn't get her there in time. She might be able to skirt one youma, jump over the other if she was lucky but the general could shift spatially and he'd be there no matter where she went, she'd have given him enough time to anticipate with which youma she skirted.

It didn't matter though because Beryl wrapped her hand around Serenity's throat and her nails sank into the flesh and through a very important vein.

Endymion was back before she could snap Serenity's neck and he hacked her arm off with one fell swoop and was cradling Serenity and removing the claw that wasn't doing anything to slow her blood loss and instantly applying pressure to the artery, trying to pinch the ends with his fingers. "It wasn't meant to be like this." He buried his face into her hair, her hood had fallen away. "You were supposed to be safe."

"They knew this is where we'd go."

"We'd thought that it'd be your mother but you're so much better of a reward." Beryl sneered, holding her arm to her chest and the general was trying to staunch the blood. The youma guarded them from escaping but no one thought it was a real possibility, not with Serenity injured as she was. "Come along Endymion, you're finished here."

"No." Endymion held Serenity closer. "I'll come quietly with you but let me stay with her until-" He couldn't finish his thought and Beryl looked down at her arm and gave a shrug. Serenity didn't have long, even with his efforts and he couldn't move or heal her, he didn't have that ability.

"Endymion, don't." Serenity breathed, her pallor was so wane already. "It'll be a living death."

"I know but she's agreed to give me these last minutes with you and that's all that really matters." He argued. "It'd be a living death no matter what."

Serenity's eyes closed briefly and then she opened them again. "It's snowing." She mumbled. "I've always wanted it to snow on the moon and look, they're purple snowflakes."

He didn't have the heart to tell her that it was just ash from the fight and destruction around them. She probably already knew somewhere in her heart that it was. Yet they were both willing to overlook it to give her one last moment of beauty.

"I love you so much." He whispered down to her.

"I hadn't wanted our last kiss to be one of goodbye. I felt that in there, maybe not a permanent goodbye but an awareness that you might not survive the battle." She tried to lift a hand but all she managed was a flutter. "I'm glad it wasn't. The next one was so much better." She closed her eyes for a longer moment this time and it was harder to open them again. "I can't see you any more."

"I'm still right here." He promised her.

"Hold my hand?" It would require him to let go of one of the arteries but she was gone anyway and he'd give her this last request. He let go of the one leading up and pushed it into the other hand so he could hold both between two fingers. With his now freed and bloodied hand he pushed aside the cape and saw that it was a darker shade than before and ignored it to hold her hand. "Are you doing it?"

"Yes." He knew now she couldn't feel either and the word came out harsh.

"Don't be sad for too long." She told him. "I love you more than words can express and I don't want you to live half a life."

"That's not going to happen." He responded but it was too vague and her face pulled into a frown. He laid his lips on her forehead. "You're my entire life."

Her face smoothed out and she smiled. "I know and you're mine too. Endy- I'm cold."

"I'll warm you."

"You always have, just the thought of you." Her head rolled back, causing his precarious grip on her vein slip out of his hand but it didn't matter, she's already lost too much blood and he sobbed into her chest.

"You've said your goodbyes, now come along. I promise you won't remember this soon enough."

"I said I'd join you, you don't have to wipe my memories." He ground out but was unwilling to leave Serenity's side. "Better yet." He laid her carefully down and picked up his sword but flipped it onto himself faster than they could react and stabbed himself in the heart, and falling onto the woman he could never leave, dead instantly.

"Pathetic." Beryl growled and a scream tore out of her throat at the loss of her conquest.

It was on the heels of the red suddenly disappearing from the night sky. What had once looked like Christmas lights was now an eerier green and then that too faded away.

The Queen of the Moon was instantly at their side and she took in the scene in disbelief and again before anyone could move the two youma, and the general had vanished in a puff of ash and Beryl was severely weakened and held down by three senshi who were already starting to realize what happened to their princess.

The Queen _could_ have ended the fight the moment it started but that would have meant sacrificing much of her energy and they all knew the real enemy had yet to appear. It was still hanging back, waiting for everyone to be exhausted or dead, but again the plan hadn't included Serenity dying. With her death, nothing mattered anymore.

Gathering the princess into her arms was a mean fight with Endymion's corpse wrapped around her and his limbs stiffening but she managed to pry the girl free and sprinted into the gateway. Her feet landed on the cold dark gray slab that couldn't exist on the Moon. That's because she was no longer on the Moon but in Pluto's lair.

"Pluto! Please! Help me heal her!" The Queen cried out, collapsing with her child in her arms.

Pluto appeared instantly and knelt by the royals. "My Queen, it's too late." Pluto rested a hand on Serenity's forehead. "She died before you got to her, she died where she wanted to be most, in Endymion's arms. Return her to her home, where they both sacrificed so much to remain with one another."

"I can't. She can't be dead. Please Pluto, there's go to be a way to reverse the effects, return her to her last heartbeat and freeze it there so I can heal her." Big giant tears started rolling down the Queen's face unchecked and Pluto shook her head.

"You know I can't. Not here and now."

"It's too soon." The Queen started rocking with Serenity in her arms. "A mother should never have to bury a child. Now I have to bury two."

"I didn't know you cared for Endymion so much." Pluto was surprised at the Queen's words.

"Of course I did! I've known him since he was a little boy and his mother and I used to be so close. I just didn't want him hanging around Serenity so much, stirring up more conflict when there was already so much to deal with, with their romance."

Pluto nodded, she could understand that. "It's a sad price to pay."

"Price to pay?" Serenity's mother lifted her head. " _Of course!_ " She lifted her daughter and brought her back through the portal ignoring Pluto's shout of concern. She laid Serenity down next to Endymion and placed Endymion's arm over Serenity's stomach and lifted the Silver Crystal up into the air and made her wish known without words, it was too deep of a wish to sully with improper words.

The world around her emptied instantly and she was left alone and collapsed on the spot near where Endymion and Serenity once laid. A white and purple-black cat came pouncing up to her out of breath. "What happened?"

"I couldn't include the two of you. I need you to remember and to guide them." She reached out and pet the cats once on each of their heads. "You need to find them in the future and protect my daughter, protect her love."

"Of course." They agreed instantly. "It was too great of a sacrifice though, you should have continued on living for so many more years."

The Queen shook her head. "No, I'm afraid that this is the end of my time, as it should. I can die knowing that my children aren't dead, not really. They're just living somewhere else in time and place. Go now, while you can." She lifted them up, bubbles surrounded the cats and sent them to Earth, it had been the cause of her misery, it would be the place that would bring about salvation.

Far too many years to count had passed and her children had done something remarkable. They had not only survived the revival of Beryl and the Chaos shade but had survived all versions of it and had made the world a much better and much more wonderful place to be.

No one was hungry or cold because they had no where to go for their necessities. Not everyone was happy all the time but then again they wouldn't be human if they were.

Serenity and Endymion had regained not only their memories but their forms and still retained a bit of the Usagi and Mamoru they had been for a short amount of time, in the grand scheme of things. The difference though laid in their coloring.

Serenity was five months pregnant and he worried more about her than he ever had during an attack and it was the way it should be. Her hair was no longer gold or blond but silver, a silver that was not gray. His hair was purple, also a purple that was not gray but one could be excused for thinking they were both graying after the richness and vibrancy of their earlier colors, but these suited them too, perhaps better.

Serenity ruffled Endymion's hair as she looked up at him from her position with her head in his lap. "Your hair is the color of purple snowflakes." He froze and looked down at her in consternation, they had never really talked about her first death. Yet she didn't seem dismayed by it at all. "I have never seen purple snowflakes before but I know it has something to do with Pluto." A faint frown crossed her brow. "Think we will ever see any?"

"I hope not." He told her without a fleck of remorse even though she wanted to see them.

"Oh well." She gave a small shrug. "Real snowflakes are cool enough."

He never told her because she loved Christmas so much but he was secretly glad every time the 26th rolled around because it meant that they had not repeated the past and he had so much to be grateful for that they hadn't.

–

EAN: I probably could have saved this for later, and it's on the back of another Silver Millennium one-shot and they _might_ be in the same universe, idk, haven't thought about it too much but for some reason when I thought of the story I wanted to write after coming up with a title, I decided on this one and for me it fit well here because it's not _just_ Silver Millennium but has tie-in with Crystal Tokyo. Also purple is the color of royalty, the right purple at least. Purple can be many shades and have a variety of meanings depending on that shade. I know this one was dark, but the last one was pretty much pure fluff. So there's that. There will be _more_ purely fluffy pieces and of course some more mature ones and I don't mean mature as in dark, but mature as in... adult? Or at least more so than what you've gotten thus far.

EAN2: Let me explain the gateway/portal the way it was meant to work: To go through those doors, one would have to be someone along her bloodline and where she ended up was no longer on the Moon but with Pluto. There she was in stasis while the rest of the world continued on. She'd be alive and moving about, able to talk and learn and understand but her heart would not be beating, she would be between one moment and the next, frozen in time and the moment in which she arrived. When the danger was over she'd be sent back.


	6. Traditions

Christmas 6: Traditions

–

Traditions were important. Traditions were the backbone to not just culture and identity but also to caring and compassion. She always thought she was a traditional person and couldn't live without the structure that holidays provided for her. She could mark her years by the holidays, she always knew how much time she had between each holiday and they were _so_ different from the previous and following one that a person made the most out of it while it was there and looked forward to the next one and those steps would continue until the year set again.

Living in Japan where the traditions she grew up with weren't as deeply engrained into this culture as the one she had grown up with, Minako was starting to feel, disconnected. Sure her friends tried and there were certain things that were the same or similar enough, but it just _wasn't_.

After two years of this, living without the traditions, the subtleties of home, going home for a few years, made her realize that she couldn't recapture it and that made her sad. Her time was over.

Despite what religion said, despite what TV and movies tried to make it out as, Christmas was in a lot of ways a child's holiday. It was magical and incredible and as an adult, you could only reclaim that sense of wonder by watching it through a child's eyes. It's why her parents had tried so hard to protect her innocence, not only for her sake but for theirs as well.

However she had always been a slightly cynical child. Sure she smiled, laughed and did everything in her power to ensure that no one saw deeper. Sometimes she wanted to rip off the shell and she did and she felt odd to be so naked in such a way and so she would pull the shell on over her and zip it back up.

She wasn't a fool, she knew many people saw through her and she tried even harder to be who she pretended to be, both inside and out and for awhile she fooled everyone she fooled herself. But leaving England and living in Japan where it just drove her crazy that while on the outside everything seemed perfect, they were doing the same things as back home, it wasn't perfect and she lashed out because she couldn't figure out how to make it perfect.

So she just gave up. Why should she have a lot of those Western holidays in an Eastern country? Where they didn't celebrate it and they didn't know how to even if they did it for her. She gave up a part of herself. Before leaving England, even while she struggled with herself and her image, before it got even more worn out, she'd experimented, wanted tradition but wanted to mix it up a bit too so it wasn't _so_ much of the same thing.

It had been a heady mix, all the jagged edges she tried to keep hidden at home, the thin membrane that had gotten thinner while away, parts of those edges poking through and couldn't completely get pulled back in, cutting others who got too close, mostly because she was lonely she attacked any who crossed that threshold but not all were friendly combatants, some _were_ the enemy and it was getting harder for her to tell the difference. It was odd, but it was part of that expectation, reality failing and grumpiness rolling into a bigger and bigger ball that nobody could ever dare stop it or get inside.

She really thought she would continue to go until she rolled off a cliff's edge, or she'd be melted down and what was left wouldn't even be her jagged version, but a mere skeleton. She'd already stopped caring about so many things, traditions, niceties, only doing what she wanted because she wanted to do it or would get her ahead somewhere. Most of the time, but even that effort was a dragging action. She even turned down friends' invitations because she rather spend time on her own after awhile of what seemed like forced exile. They had been too busy for her before, so now she would continue doing what she was doing, on her own, whether it was at home or out and about.

Sadly, that became what seemed like her new tradition and some traditions were meant to be broken. Hopefully she'd never fall into that routine again, but to hope for that would be putting expectations on others that they couldn't reach and so she would have to find something else to do to combat those feelings, find a way to be around people and _with_ people rather than just be by herself amongst other people. No one listened to her.

Then she found it, on the eve of Christmas Eve, it didn't matter what _it_ was, for her it was an improv class. It wouldn't matter if anyone _listened_ , she would finally just get to _say it_ and say it _to_ people who had to at least pretend to listen. She was able to get it out of her, spending too much time in her own head was bad. For her this was the solution, for others, who knew, but they'd have something they could do that helped them, they just had to find it.

This though was her Christmas miracle. It might not have corrected everything that was wrong with the holiday in Japan or the lack of being able to go back to it in England but she could scream out her frustrations to a group of artists who would understand her pain and then be happy and able to deal with everything with a much more relaxed attitude with her friends and then she wouldn't be alone so much anymore because she would be more pleasant to be around. Even though _before_ , long before she was probably even more pleasant and positive. Now she had deeper emotions and people realized it too and she had the bubbly happy personality.

Then that following Christmas as she stepped out from the studio and looked up to the softly falling snow, listening to music she heard a dozen times but had always cringed because of the pronunciation, she took a deep breath and released it. It was time to wipe the slate clean and start anew, make her new traditions with her friends here, she could borrow some from her old world that she liked and incorporate ones here that she liked and leave out all the bad.

Then she would be ruthless to make sure even if small things changed, these traditions would stay in place, they would be followed every year and her children would never, ever be away from home during the holiday season, tradition would be vital to them. They would never want to break from tradition and try what she did, because traditions could help center you or destroy you.

Even years and years after her traditions were followed the same every year without a murmur of discontent, even praise at how they loved doing what she had planned, Minako still found herself at the acting studio, sometimes to let out screams of rage and sometimes to give advice or to be an audience member for someone who needed the same therapy she did. Partly because it helped and mostly because it was tradition. Did that person just scream wrong? Minako wanted to go again because that wasn't the way it was meant to be! Did tradition mean nothing to no one?

–

EAN: It's just a silly one I decided to write (the first one to be completed actually though Postcards and Twinkling Circus Lights had been started first). It's short I know but it's on the heels of an extra long one. Usually these are 3-4 pages, Christmas 5 was 5 pages long and this was 2, so it's balanced now.

EAN2: Well guys, we're at the halfway point! Yay! Now I just have to sit down and write the next six. At least I got ideas and chapter titles!


	7. Advent of Candles

Christmas 7: Advent of Candles

–

Everyone told her to give up, that it was a lost cause. Mamoru was gone and wasn't coming back.

The girls thought he'd forgotten about her, or at least had liked his new life so much more than his old one that he was washing his hands of her. Her parents thought he was too busy and with the time change that it was too difficult to contact her all the time, or even once.

Seiya, well, he hadn't said much on the issue except try and tell her that Mamoru was gone and there was no hope for him returning. He didn't say it so directly though. He kept trying to guide her gently to that understanding.

Usagi couldn't though, she just couldn't believe it. He said he'd write and call and so she knew he would. He _would_.

She was getting cards in the mail, not real cards but not quite postcards either, more like those info or game cards people had with a picture and space below for words. They kept arriving in her mail box. She didn't get any words but she felt like they were from Mamoru. They had something to do with Mamoru, that much she knew for sure, knew it in her gut.

Every night before she went to bed she would turn on her nightlight. She had graduated from the one in the wall with a little girl and bunny to one at her window. This one was a candle. It wasn't a flame she lit every night but it was as close as she could get. A real flame was too dangerous but the idea was the same behind it.

The girls thought it was a symbol that she was still carrying a torch for him.

The girls could think what they want and that much was true enough. Yet it was more than that, it was a symbol all right, a symbol that she was there, waiting for him to return. It was there to help guide him home.

And some nights it felt like he was.

She'd awake with a strong feeling that he was near, that his presence wasn't far and she'd wake yearning for him to complete that distance, to be in the room with her.

Some nights she'd sleep through but would wake up at peace and feel as if he had spent the whole night with her, just holding her and those were the best days, the days where she didn't cry and she missed him less because he felt so close.

Then there were the nights where it felt like someone blew out that light. Those were the worst. Sometimes it was true, she'd wake up and the candle would be off. She didn't know if it was her mom, Luna or some ghostly figure telling her to give up.

Those were the days she felt like he was never further away, that he was truly gone and she'd cry so often she wasn't sure if her face would ever go back to normal or if it was permanently waterlogged.

Even after she found out the truth, even after it finally pushed its way in after she lost four friends, four more candles she lit every night, she still turned them all on. It wasn't a prayer that they rested in peace, it wasn't a prayer that they'd look over her. It was still a hope that they'd make their way back and that her light would guide them if they'd lost their way.

The cards weren't from Mamoru, they were from Seiya. Even so, it had had something to do with Mamoru. It was meant to remind her of what she had blocked in her memory, his own way of proving to her that someone was lighting a candle to help her find her way back, her own way through. She looked at the cards afresh now that she knew who they were from and why she had gotten them and there in the center was a star brighter than the rest, a guide for her to follow.

Before she lost any more friends they would make a plan to go there.

And before she left to track down the one stealing souls just to get at her, she lit only one candle in the window.

It might be one tiny candle in a world of light far away from everything and that light had no chance of reaching her until she was near, but it would do, it was enough, it was there to help her come home once more and hopefully bring back with her not only her friends but Mamoru as well.

Apparently it was her light that had guided so much darkness and pain to her doorstep.

Not the light in the window, but the light shining through her, the same light she had inadvertently passed onto her candle, for it shone so much brighter than ever before. Like flames they just fed each other.

That very same light that drew so much darkness also drew so many damaged souls that healed when bathed in her light and had given her so much support and strength in return, making her light even brighter.

It was that light that allowed her to be able to defeat the darkness and gave her the inguity to spread that darkness to everyone. Not one soul deserved so much darkness and not one soul deserved so much light. It was the balance that made things beautiful.

Just like a solitary candle behind a window in a room so dark that it allowed the light to shine brighter.

Everyone was blessed with one more life and were returned to Tokyo and more lights were on, combating the dark, more candles in more windows. More lights strung up on trees.

And one couple, one dark and one light walked home together, looking for that one house with that one window in that one room that held the most precious candle of them all. The candle she had lit for him.

They said their temporary goodbyes as she went inside and hugged her family tightly. She then opened her window and once he entered she turned off the light. He wouldn't need it to guide him home anymore, he was already there. She shut the window and returned to him and he held her all night. In the morning he told her that he had never needed the candle for _she_ had always been his light but the candle was a nice visual touch.

She kissed him a temporary goodbye as he left through the window and by the time she got downstairs he was already there, inside talking with her family.

"Merry Christmas Usako." He pulled her in tight and held her even as they opened gifts.

She'd tell everyone that lighting a candle was the best idea she ever had.

–

EAN: I know, another one that's only 2 pages but it flowed the way I wanted it to, so I didn't feel the need to drag it out longer. Some of the following ones though might be even longer.


End file.
